HistoricalChristian.Faith

Irenaeus of Lyons on the Old Testament Canon

Dates: c. 180 AD (Against Heresies, c. 175–189; Irenaeus lived c. 130–202, bishop of Lugdunum/Lyons, a hearer of Polycarp who had heard the apostle John) · Wikipedia
Summary: In Against Heresies Irenaeus quotes two of the disputed deuterocanonical texts not as edifying maxims but as the words of named prophets. He cites the Greek addition to Daniel — the story of Susanna — as words "to be found in Daniel the prophet," and he quotes a long passage of Baruch as the words "Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out" (Baruch being reckoned in the Greek tradition an appendix to Jeremiah). Unlike Clement, the Didache, and Polycarp, who weave the disputed books in as authoritative counsel without a citation formula, Irenaeus gives them the explicit prophetic-Scripture attribution — "the prophet" — the strongest form of second-century practical use before the first Christian Old-Testament lists.

Claims & evidence

He cites the addition to Daniel (Susanna) as the words of "Daniel the prophet"

Those, however, who are believed to be presbyters by many, but serve their own lusts, and, do not place the fear of God supreme in their hearts, but conduct themselves with contempt towards others, and are puffed up with the pride of holding the chief seat, and work evil deeds in secret, saying, "No man sees us," shall be convicted by the Word, who does not judge after outward appearance (secundum gloriam), nor looks upon the countenance, but the heart; and they shall hear those words, to be found in Daniel the prophet: "O thou seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust perverted thy heart. Thou that art waxen old in wicked days, now thy sins which thou hast committed aforetime are come to light; for thou hast pronounced false judgments, and hast been accustomed to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, albeit the Lord saith, The innocent and the righteous shalt thou not slay."

— Against Heresies IV.26.3.¹ The quoted words are Daniel's rebuke of the elders in the story of Susanna — Susanna verses 56 ("O thou seed of Canaan") and 52 — one of the Greek additions to Daniel that stand in the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew text, and which Protestants reckon apocryphal.² Irenaeus introduces them with the strongest attribution available — not a woven maxim but the express formula "to be found in Daniel the prophet," treating the Susanna material as part of the prophetic book of Daniel itself.

He quotes Baruch as the words of "Jeremiah the prophet"

And Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out, that as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left upon earth, should both be under the rule of the saints to minister to this Jerusalem, and that [His] kingdom shall be in it, saying, "Look around Jerusalem towards the east, and behold the joy which comes to thee from God Himself. Behold, thy sons shall come whom thou hast sent forth: they shall come in a band from the east even unto the west, by the word of that Holy One, rejoicing in that splendour which is from thy God. O Jerusalem, put off thy robe of mourning and of affliction, and put on that beauty of eternal splendour from thy God. Gird thyself with the double garment of that righteousness proceeding from thy God; place the mitre of eternal glory upon thine head."

— Against Heresies V.35.1.³ The long quotation is not from the canonical Jeremiah but from the deuterocanonical Baruch — Baruch 4:36 through chapter 5 — which the Greek and Latin tradition treated as an appendix to Jeremiah and routinely cited under the prophet's name.⁴ Irenaeus adduces it as genuine prophecy — "Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out… saying" — pressing it as a proof-text for the resurrection and the earthly kingdom, exactly as he handles the protocanonical prophets around it (Isaiah in the same chapter).

Notes

• The Baruch-as-Jeremiah convention. That Irenaeus names "Jeremiah" while quoting Baruch is not a slip but the standard ancient reckoning: in the Septuagint and the Old Latin, Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremiah travelled bound with Jeremiah and were cited as his, the same fold-in by which Cyril, Athanasius, and Epiphanius later kept Baruch inside a "canonical" Jeremiah while counting a Hebrew-sized list. The Ante-Nicene Fathers editors flag the quotation as Baruch, not Jeremiah, in their own apparatus.
• Stronger than a woven maxim. Where Clement of Rome, the Didache, and Polycarp braid the disputed books into exhortation with no citation formula, Irenaeus supplies the explicit "the prophet" attribution for both Susanna and Baruch — treating deuterocanonical material as prophetic Scripture on a par with Daniel and Jeremiah. He renders no Old-Testament list, so this is a witness to use, not a canon-verdict; but it is the firmest second-century use of the disputed books as Scripture before Melito drew up the first Christian catalogue.
• Bearing on the argument. Irenaeus stands on the "using" side of the divide weighed in the argument "Did the early church reject the deuterocanon…?" (assessed contested): a major second-century Father, a link to the apostolic generation through Polycarp, citing two disputed texts as the words of named prophets — evidence against the flat claim that the primitive church did not reckon these books Scripture, decades before the earliest Hebrew-sized lists.
• Place on the timeline. At c. 180 AD Irenaeus stands a decade after Melito of Sardis (c. 170), whose list is the first to leave the deuterocanon out, and well before Origen (c. 240) — the same generation reaching opposite results, Melito enumerating a narrower canon while Irenaeus quotes the wider Greek text as prophecy.

Sources